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<title>the numbers were all that mattered. by Phoenixgriffin260</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27606539">the numbers were all that mattered.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenixgriffin260/pseuds/Phoenixgriffin260'>Phoenixgriffin260</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Electricity, Fictional Religion &amp; Theology, Homoeroticism, Implied Sexual Content, Other, Religious Imagery &amp; Symbolism, The Extinction Fear Entity (The Magnus Archives)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:47:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>196</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27606539</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenixgriffin260/pseuds/Phoenixgriffin260</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>And there was a prickling at his fingers, down his spine and curled around his throat like a lover would whisper promises, and he laughs into the wires in the wall.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the numbers were all that mattered.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesimiel/gifts">jesimiel</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The walls crackle and thrum with electricity. </p><p>Gary feels it down his throat, in his chest, deep in his bones- a tick, tick, tick of seconds passing by and the hum of drills in the earth and the breath and wheeze of people exploited- and he is thrilled, so sickly it makes him cough into his hands through eyes watery. </p><p>(Through it all, the ash is rubbed into the carpet with bare skin against the wires, smog clinging under his nails like a song that won't leave his head, and the taste of static on his tongue).</p><p>(The Extinction crackles in his thoughts and he stares, wide-eyed and worshipping, at the open bulb in the ceiling, imagining what it were to grasp it with hands in prayer).</p><p>The iPod slips between his fingers, reminding him of his back to the wall, the geiger counter ticking in his other hand, and he gasps, low- and the Extinction purrs, a roll of haze slipping through his skin; a caress, a kiss, one of fire and death and the wonder of watching something slowly be consumed by themselves. </p><p>Tears roll down, and he does not stop them. Radiation burns.</p>
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